Chapter 6 - The Man at My Door
My legs nearly gave out.
“My apartment.”
Dominic took the phone.
“They’re there because they think you might have sent something home.”
“I didn’t.”
“Victor doesn’t know that.”
My next-door neighbor, Mrs. Flores, watched Marcus when I worked late.
She was probably home.
So were twenty families.
“This is my fault,” I whispered.
“No,” Dominic said.
“This happened because I brought Marcus here.”
“This happened because someone betrayed me three years ago.”
I looked at him.
“Those families don’t care whose fault it is when bullets start coming through their walls.”
Dominic’s jaw tightened.
He made a call.
“Rafael.”
A voice answered.
“Boss?”
“Mercer Apartments. Two men outside. Quietly.”
“How quiet?”
Dominic looked at Marcus.
“Very.”
He hung up.
“You have people everywhere?”
“I used to think so.”
That answer bothered him more than me.
We reached the greenhouse.
Rain hammered the glass roof.
Dominic stopped.
“Something’s wrong.”
“What?”
“No guards.”
The greenhouse should have been secured.
Instead, it was empty.
We crossed slowly.
Marcus whispered, “I have to pee.”
Of course he did.
“Can you hold it?”
He shook his head.
Dominic pointed to a utility bathroom.
“Thirty seconds.”
I rushed Marcus inside.
The second the door closed, a crash came from the greenhouse.
I locked us in.
Gunfire exploded.
Marcus started crying.
“Mommy!”
“Look at me.”
Boom.
“Look at me, baby.”
He did.
“We’re playing the mouse game again.”
He sniffed.
“Quiet mouse?”
“Quietest mouse in the world.”
Outside, men shouted.
Then glass shattered.
A body slammed against the bathroom door.
I nearly screamed.
“Open up,” Dominic said.
I unlocked it.
Blood covered his sleeve.
“Are you shot?”
“Not mine.”
Two men lay on the greenhouse floor.
Dominic grabbed my hand.
“We move now.”
We ran through the rain toward a maintenance building.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Elena?”
Mrs. Flores.
I almost collapsed from relief.
“Are you okay?”
“There were men downstairs.”
“I know.”
“Then two other men came.”
My stomach clenched.
“What happened?”
“They told everyone to stay inside. I heard fighting.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Lock your door. Don’t open it.”
“Where are you?”
I looked at Dominic.
“I’m working.”
Mrs. Flores went silent.
“Elena, what kind of catering job is this?”
I almost laughed.
Almost.
Then she lowered her voice.
“Someone came to your apartment earlier.”
My smile disappeared.
“Who?”
“A man. Gray hair. Nice suit.”
Victor.
“What did he do?”
“He used a key.”
My blood went cold.
“What?”
“He was inside maybe ten minutes.”
Dominic heard everything.
He took the phone gently.
“Mrs. Flores, did he leave with anything?”
“No.”
A pause.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“He left something.”
Dominic looked at me.
“What did he leave?”
“I don’t know. A little box. He put it under Elena’s bed.”
Dominic and I stared at each other.
May you like
Then Mrs. Flores said the words that made my stomach drop.
“It had a blinking red light.”
